Chicken dragging head please help

[as110]

My chick has a similar poop. We are on day 12 I think and he is standing and looking around. He is trying to eat but loses balance so he keeps backing up until he can find support. He is trying to scratch when he eats. He sleeps standing too.

 

[Eggcessive]

Is he close to the other chicks, or just in his little box? He needs way more room to walk around, and perhaps some visits with his flock of chicks. He needs to be with the others some for company and ro remain part of the pecking order as he grows.

Is there a water source in with him? If he doesn’t get enough to eat and drink, you can hold him in a towel several times a day, and feed him a watery mix of chick feed and a little egg for selenium. Wry neck can last days or weeks.

 

[as110]

Is he close to the other chicks, or just in his little box? He needs way more room to walk around, and perhaps some visits with his flock of chicks. He needs to be with the others some for company and ro remain part of the pecking order as he grows.

Is there a water source in with him? If he doesn’t get enough to eat and drink, you can hold him in a towel several times a day, and feed him a watery mix of chick feed and a little egg for selenium. Wry neck can last days or weeks.

He sleeps in this box. He does not walk around because he can't. He is just now able to stand and eat on his own, but he still flops around or rolls over his head when he gets the neck cramps. I take him out several times to feed and give water. The food box is in there for him in case he wanted to try to feed himself. He can't drink without help because he just makes a huge mess, or he puts his whole head in the water and then he freaks out and shakes his head. I mixed the water with the food enough to drink but not so it will spill. We visit the flock when he eats. I think he is ready tomorrow to be in the dog crate. he has longer periods when he can keep the head straight and look around and he is trying to walk. I just have to be sure the hens can't reach his food. We will take him out of the crate to feed as usual until we are confident he can handle it alone.
The pecking will start I know it for sure when he gets out of that crate. Some of the hens are plain nasty.

I think I asked in another thread not this one if we should separate the chickens from the hens because two of them are always hiding in the coop and the hens eat their food. They stay in the corner where they were with the broody hen, but I removed the block from the door so hens can get in there to lay eggs and these chicks usually sleep there at night but this evening I saw they were sleeping out with the other 3 chickens but not together just in the same area. I still see a whole lot of stress. I wonder if we should let them grow to the adult size behind the fence. I have the yard divided by chicken wire in the middle, I used it to keep the roosters but they are gone now so I have the room free again. I considered removing the divider to give them more room to roam but I wonder if the chickens should go there instead.

Also the hens used to go out to the whole yard in the grass to prevent fights but I didn't want to lose the little chicks (to the hawks and the cats, or that they didn't know where to go back to sleep) so they are all together in their fenced yard at the moment and in the coop. (13 hens, 2 roosters and 5 chicks) The roosters don't bother the chicks. Some of the hens are bloody mean.

 

[rebrascora]

Photos or at least dimensions of your coop and run would be helpful to make suggestions about what might work. Usually there is aggression when space of food is limited. More space and multiple feed and water stations in different areas is the key. Yes hens will put adolescent birds in their place but they should not be at them all the time. There should be more interesting things for them to do. The hens will be crabby because they used to have plenty of space to range and now they are penned with extra birds now with the chicks in there so they will now see it as crowded, especially with 2 roosters as well. Why not let them out into the yard on an evening for a few hours before they go to roost when you can supervise and guard them from predators. The chances are that the hens will be so keen to get out and explore that they will leave the pen and the youngsters will be happy to stay in the pen without being harassed by the hens. You could do this every evening and at weekends during the day when you are home. You could experiment with barring the gate from the pen into the yard with a piece of plywood about 18 inches high to deter the youngsters from coming out. The hens should quite easily hop over it to go out and come back for laying but the chicks will probably be too interested in having all the run to explore unmolested that they don't even think about "going over the wall" at least for a week or two.